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The new Penn State extension enologist notes that her first name means, literally, a “follower of Dionysus,” the Greek god of winemaking.

Finish that California cab, Denise. You're in Pennsylvania now.

So the Reading, Pa., native steps into the position vacant for three years, with an eye toward helping Pennsylvania’s growing ranks of wineries and winemakers make better wine. The state has about 130 wineries fermenting batches of wine and selling them to consumers. About 50 others hold active licenses but are not yet started.

Gardner left California, where she worked with Enartis Vinquiry, a prominent wine laboratory and supplier, to return to her home state where she thinks she can make a greater difference.

“Really good wines are made in Pennsylvania, but there is room to grow and change and improve,” she said. “One person can make a great difference and enhance wine quality and winemaking in Pennsylvania. In California, one person can’t do that.”

Gardner was born in Reading and moved to Robesonia where she attended high school and become enamored with agriculture, joining the Future Farmers of America. An assignment to write a report on Penn State research drew her to grapevine diseases. She became a vine geek. Required to give a speech in another class, she choose to talk about phylloxera, a infamous pest that devastates vine roots. An unlikely topic for a high school speech, her delivery nevertheless earned her an award and the resolve to pursue wine studies.

At Penn State she earned a degree in food science with a minor in horticulture, then went to Virginia Tech where she earned a master’s in food science with an emphasis on enology and flavor chemistry. Since graduating, she worked with Vinquiry’s wine analytical services team as a sensory scientist, giving her the sort of background that equips her to smell a wine, identify flaws, and know the causes and cures.

“There are ways to fix wines,” she said. “When there’s a problem or a shortcoming, you look at how grapes are grown and processed or you consider fixing problem with products that are available.”

New Jersey’s pineapple wine, albariño and everything between was being poured at the New Jersey Wine Competition last week at Rutgers facility in Cream Ridge, N.J.

Over 300 wines from blueberry to Bordeaux-style blends from 28 wineries kept six, five-judge panels busy. Of the 53 flights, 15 were red vinifera, including some that may seem unlikely for New Jersey: tempranillo, syrah, port-style wine, barbera and a whopping five flights of cabernet franc. All grape wines had to be made with New Jersey fruit to enter.

Competition director Gary Pavlis, Ph.D., Rutgers Extension’s viticulture point man, covered changes to the competition. He stopped segregating vintages in flights. With such radically divergent vintages in the east – 2009 thought to be one of the worst in memory and 2010 the best—mixing vintages, he hoped, would deter judges from having expectations about the wine before putting it to their nose and mouth.

Dr. Joe Fiola surveys wines at the NJ Wine Competition

Dr. Larry Coia was there and I got to judge on a panel with Barbara Coia. They are leading figures in the state’s industry, as operators of Coia Vineyards. Dr. Coia is a retired cancer researcher and author of medical textbooks. He also shaved his 70s-style mustache a few months ago. “Mid-life crisis,” Barbara Coia explained. Before the judging, Dr. Coia tried to grab the floor to explain to judges those radical vintage differences. Dr. Pavlis stopped him. Each wine should be judged on its own merits, he said. There’s no grading on a curve for poor vintage.

“A bronze doesn’t become a gold because it was a bad year,” Dr. Palvis said, noting the approach cuts both ways. “If you go into 2010 wines thinking it’s the best vintage ever, you may grade them too hard.”

We almost had a good New Jersey throw-down. Dr. Coia wrapped up by saying he would “approach it differently.” Hum.

My panel had a promising chardonnay flight, with at least one gold. But others labored under the weight of oak, or showed too much character from added Cayuga. Our panel split on an albariño, which two of us through was gold-worthy. Every competition, I leave frustrated about at least one wine that didn’t get the recognition I felt it deserved. This competition, it’s that albariño.

We had at least three very good rieslings, a conventional eastern-style riesling, a sweeter, Mosel-style riesling, and an usually spicy/spearmint riesling. We had a dry prosecco that was killer in the sparkling flight, and a sweet dolcetto that was above average. We had a diamond that was about as good a diamond could be. Pavlis explained later that he uses better diamonds, of which there are several examples in the east, as a teaching tool. More refined that other V. labruscana,i.e. native grapes, these diamonds prove to Dr. Pavlis’ students that a native wine can be gold medal winners.

Our panel had the pineapple wine. In this competition, fruit used to make fruit wines may come from outside New Jersey, helpful for all those pineapple wine makers in the Garden State. It was good, avoiding a cloying sweetness one may expect and finding a natural balance.

At lunch, we enjoyed wines without scoring them. We had a petite sirah from Belleview Winery in Landisville (which I’ve known to be a top NJ red producer) and a 20-year-old chambourcin made by Joe Fiola, Ph.D. viticultutist for Maryland Cooperative Extension, competition co-director, and an accomplished home winemaker. The petite sirah was good; the chambourcin rubbery, oxidizided and beyond its years.

Three New Jersey Governor Cups are awarded Winners in the fruit category (an apple wine) and the dessert category (a vidal ice wine, of course) had scores in the first round of judging so decisive, that those categories were not in the sweepstakes round. That left the judges to select just the grape wine Governor’s Cup from top scorers that included a chardonnay, gewürztraminer, chambourcin, merlot, cabernet franc, Bordeaux-style blend, riesling and a Concord-ives blend. With the exception of the merlot, they were all above average, but the gewürztraminer, cab franc and riesling shined the brightest.

David Falchek unscrambles the complex world of wine. Cutting through the uninteresting and uninspiring, David finds wines that over-deliver for the price or that offer something special. Firm in the belief that wine should an everyday drink for everyone, he loathes the word connoisseur and despises snobbery.

In addition to his weekly column that appears the Pennsylvania and New York publications, David's work has appeared in several wine magazines and he serves often as a wine judge. Based in Scranton, Pa., David is also a fan of non-West Coast wines with a particular affinity for those of Pennsylvania and New York.